Out of This World
Iconic space suit from Stanley Kubrick’s landmark film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, sells for $370,000 at Julien’s Auctions.
The space suit featured heavily in Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey sold for $370,000 during a Julien's Auctions event July 18, far exceeding pre-auctions estimates.
The suit, accompanied by the film's famous helmet and believed to have been worn by the film's star, Keir Dullea, as mission pilot and scientist Dr. David Bowman, in the film's memorable scene with computer "HAL," sold for $170,000 over its original estimate.
2001: A Space Odyssey marked a quantum leap in the realistic depiction of space travel in films largely due to Kubrick’s meticulous pursuit of accuracy in the film’s projections of near-future astronautical vehicles and equipment. Alongside his production team of experienced filmmaking personnel, Kubrick hired astronautical experts Fred Ordway and NASA veteran Harry Lange (1930-2008). It was Lange who created the essential designs of the film’s spacesuits, spaceship and other hardware.
The body of the suit has a silver-toned finish while the helmet is painted white (though it was repainted on several occasions during filming and has four discernible layers of paint to prove it). Besides having a distinctly futuristic look, the suit’s material also allowed it to reflect the lighting scheme of a given set, the reason why it appears notably red or even gold in some film stills.
Props from the 1968 film are difficult to come by. Legend has it that most of the production props and wardrobe were destroyed after the film’s production wrapped, which makes the items that survived among the rarest and most elusive.
Space proved a strong seller at Julien's weekend event.
Two pilot control sticks from the NASA Apollo 11 flight to the moon in 1969, one used by Neil Armstrong which sold for $370,000, over three times its original estimate of $100,000, and the other used by Buzz Aldrin, which sold for $256,000.
A complete original tool kit flown on 1972's Apollo 17 during the last mission to the moon sold for $102,400, well over its estimate of $20,000 as well as an Apollo era space suit glove designed for Armstrong that sold for $76,800, over seven times its original estimate of $10,000.
